Anora

Anora opens as a sex-worker character study, becomes a Preston Sturges screwball by its second act, and lands as a genuine tragedy in its final shot. The tonal swings are not accidents — they are the film's thesis. Ani's life is whatever register she has to pretend is working at any given moment.

Sean Baker has been building toward this film across The Florida Project, Tangerine, and Red Rocket. The accumulated skill in directing non-professional and semi-professional actors, and in shooting working-class America without condescension, finally comes together in a full-scale work.

Madison's Ani is the performance of 2024. She plays professional confidence, romantic delusion, and physical exhaustion in parallel, and the Brighton Beach accent work is specific enough that New York critics have argued publicly about which block she grew up on.

Yura Borisov's Igor is the film's secret weapon. The Russian enforcer who slowly becomes the only person actually watching Ani is one of the most empathetic supporting roles of the year. The final shot of the film is his — and Madison's — and it lands as decisively as any ending this decade.

DP Drew Daniels (Red Rocket, Euphoria) shoots neon, fluorescent, and natural light with a specific grain structure that makes every space feel geographically real. The Vegas sequence and the Brighton Beach night sequences are two completely different visual languages held together by the same eye.

Baker and editor-of-record Sean Baker cut the film at a pace modern American dramas rarely risk, especially in the middle third. The result is a 139-minute runtime that feels like two hours because no scene overstays.

Pros: Madison's career-launching performance; Yura Borisov as the year's best supporting actor; a final shot that recontextualizes the entire film.

Cons: The explicit first act will limit the audience; non-English Russian-language scenes are critical and subtitles are non-negotiable; the tonal shift from screwball to tragedy will surprise viewers who expect one mode throughout.